Add Sterling to the Yankees Mt. Rushmore
Beloved broadcaster died Monday
Good morning, all and happy Tuesday!
Baseball broadcasters, especially those who broadcast for a specific team, belong to a subjective group. One fan’s cup of tea is another fan’s glass of sour milk. It does not matter if the broadcaster’s name is Vin Scully, Joe Castiglone or Howie Rose. It is a subjective business.
And so it was with John Sterling, the legendary radio “Voice of the New York Yankees” for 36 years. Sterling died Monday. He was 87. He retired in April of the 2024 season, then returned to broadcast the Yankees postseason run to the World Series, before retiring from the booth for good.
It does not matter what the critics think of a broadcaster, and believe me, Sterling had his critics, especially in the media. So did Mel Allen, Phil Rizzuto, Red Barber, Frank Messer, Spencer Ross and many others who have populated the booth for professional sports most iconic team. To me, the measure of how much a broadcaster or person is beloved is the outpouring of grief, after one passes. And the reaction over Sterling’s death is the measure of how beloved he was.
Among Yankees broadcasters, and there have been many, including the legendary Barber, who along with Allen were the first inductees into the broadcasters wing of the baseball hall of fame, I can only compare the reaction of Sterling’s death among the Yankees fanbase to that of Allen’s and Rizzuto’s. That all three died, during the baseball season, is itself a message from on high in my book.
So if I had to compose the Mt. Rushmore of Yankees broadcasters, Sterling would join Allen and Rizzuto on it.
Allen was the “Voice of the Yankees,” radio and TV, from 1939 through 1964. In his prime, there was no one better. The Yankees fired him after the 1964 season for reasons unknown to this day. But longtime Yankees public relations director Marty Appel wrote in one of his books, of all the questions he was asked about the Yankees, the most frequent was “Why did the Yankees fire Mel Allen.” When George Steinbrenner bought the team, he brought Allen back in a limited capacity, and Allen was at the mic to call Dave Righetti’s no-hitter on July 4, 1983. Do a search on You Tube and you can hear his call. He lost nothing off his fastball that day.
Rizzuto, like Sterling, had his quirks and younger fans who remember “The Scooter,” recall how he left games early, talked about birthdays and Italian pastry, embellished his comments with “Holy Cow” and rarely described the game. They do not remember he was the slick-fielding shortstop for those Yankees dynasty teams of the 1940s and most of the 50s. And, by the way, in his prime he was a damn good baseball broadcaster. In fact, Messer, his broadcast partner for 18 seasons, once said, “No broadcaster described the big moment better than Rizzuto.” And for context, do a You Tube search of those Yankees radio broadcasts of the 1960s through the early 80s, and you will hear in Rizzuto, a broadcaster whose play-by-play, sans birthdays and cannoli, was as good as any. He broadcast the Yankees games for 40 seasons.
The outpouring of grief over Allen’s and Rizzuto’s deaths was so immense, it made the front page of the New York Daily News and newscasts everywhere. And so it is with Sterling, who also had his quirky home run calls, his over-the-top description of “THE YANKEES WIN” and much more.
Rizzuto once accepted an invitation from me to speak at a banquet in my hometown of Torrington, CT. Brian Monerat, who ran a limousine service, and I went down to his home in New Jersey and drove him to Connecticut. We talked about numerous topics on the drive back-and-forth and at one point the subject turned to Sterling, who left his talkshow at WMCA radio in New York to join the Atlanta Braves broadcast team. “His real dream is to become a Yankees broadcaster,” Rizzuto said.
Sterling realized that dream and more, and like Allen and Rizzuto, the overwhelming expression of sympathy coming from fans, friends and colleagues is proof he deserves to be placed on the Mt. Rushmore of Yankees broadcasters.
Some history
Long before we had smartphones and other digital media, I rolled my cassette tape the day Mel Allen died, to hear reaction on WFAN’s Mike and the MadDog show. I posted it on my You Tube baseball channel. Here is the link:
Also, here is the talk and Q&A from Phil Rizzuto, the night he came to my hometown:
May John Sterling R.I.P.
Thank you for subscribing and have a terrific Tuesday!
DAN